Cross Over Benefits on Off the Wall Friday

 

This week's progress 

To all my US readers, Happy 4th - I feel so blessed to be an American. Hope you get some time with ones you love.  

WoW everyone, thank you for the warm welcome back.  It's always nice to see the internet being used for actually bringing people together.  It's funny, the minute I finally got myself writing and creating, all the normal ideas would pop in my head.  My workflow the last 15 years have been that during my week, I'll get ideas on blog posts and then jot them down quick before they're lost.  For the last 6 months there weren't any and all of a sudden now they're too many!  

But today, I picked the elephant in the room - Cross Over Medium 

At first, when I decided to try to my hand at rug hooking, I thought, I'll just keep this as my little side gig secret.  It's something to do in the evenings while I indulge my deep dive on YouTube (don't ask but let's just say my husband thinks there might need to be an intervention soon.)  But the more I learned about rug hooking, the more I enjoyed it and could see similarities it has to art quilting.  Plus, it's fun to learn all the little nuances of it (something that I conquered with quilting long ago).  

Recent things I learned: 

• After MUCH research, the easiest and most economical way to cut wool strips, is to use a Sizzix system.  Sizzix is a die cutting system that is mostly used for paper crafts, but it can be used for other materials.  They did try to market it for quilting but have since dropped that line.  Thank God, the Old Tattered Flag came up with the brilliant idea of using it to easily cut strips of wool in different widths.   The whole system might cost you about $400, but its WAY cheaper than any other wool cutter they have on the market.  Traditional cutters are machined which makes
  
  
  them expensive.  Plus, as the craft gets less popular they are harder to find.  I found the Sizzix to cut quickly, efficiently and with very straight lines. (Part of the issues is that the strips are cut in 32nds widths from about 3-10)  That all said there is no reason you can't cut your strips with a rotary cutter  - although I have YET to hear a rug hooker say that - lol!  Let me know in the comments if you want me to talk more about this cutting system.  
• Most rug hookers are like quilters, they are a traditional lot.  They like to have patterns and they like patterns to show them exactly how to make it.  That said, I do think more and more hookers are branching out to make their own design.  This week I sat in on Cindi Gay's weekly Saturday Hook -In. It's free and there were about 12 ladies just hooking for about an hour chatting over Zoom.  People showed what they are working on and new people asked questions.  In the discussion, I learned a lot of hookers struggle with value and shading (that sounded familiar).  With a little research I learned about an app - Value Study App - finally a little app that will easily give you value study of picture.  I thought - WoW - where has this been all my life!  The android version is still in beta testing but I didn't have any issue getting mine to work on my Samsung Galaxy. 

Apparently, I'm not the only Sayre in this house that needed a change.  My husband decided last year that he wanted learn how to paint - yes not my house but actual paintings.  He first looked for painting classes locally and not finding any, he did what we all do lately...turned to YouTube.  Since he's retired, he then spent quite a bit of time watching videos until he started to follow some teachers he really liked.  He set up a little painting space in our basement (14 rooms in this Victorian and he chooses the basement which to me is like a dungeon) and started painting.  Over the last year, he's turned out some really nice pieces but his last series is kinda crazy good - no, seriously - here they are 

They are from copy-right free vintage photos from around 1910 done in oil.  He recently entered them in a local art show and won his first ribbon.  He's entered this show before but always with his woodworking pieces.  Imagine the surprise from the gallery owner when she saw he could paint.  (I knew exactly how she felt- I had no idea he has progressed this far in a year!)

That's right he taught himself off of YouTube.  Now for the first time in our marriage all he talks about is paint rather than wood.  He did easily make his own frames and stretched canvases.  Plus, he's planning trips to art museums rather than me for a nice change.  

That's the Cross Over Madness that is going on in the Sayre's house ...

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